Saturday, 29 June 2013

I've rebased my old Foreign Legion figures as they will be part of the French garrison for the game

All the terrain is now ready and here's an impression of how the table will look. On the day I will need to add more lines of stones, which define crest line and therefore limits line of sight.

For those who are interested the game is a what-if scenario set during the Tunisian campaign in 1943 with a mixture of forces from all the major combatants. To quote the author Warwick Young

"This fictional battle represents an action that took place instead of the conflagration at Kasserine. Mixed Axis units attacked from the Thelepte area northwards, along a road up a valley, with the aim of capturing Tebessa. They were halted by French defences in the towns of Bordj Oum Ali (to the south) and El Ma el Abiod (to the north), reinforced by British and American mixed units."

Sunday, 23 June 2013

A single unit this time, originally there were only six figures, so I've added another ten. The originals were Revell and the new one are Redbox and they go together very well.
At the back is the cornfield to provide an idea of it's height compared to the figures. It measures 15mm high and is approximately waist high, which is correct for traditional wheat (1.2m high) rather than the modern dwarf varieties.

Saturday, 22 June 2013

Popping into Wilko for something unrelated I spotted some door mats. Firstly a coir mat for £3.00 with a much thinner backing than my existing pieces, which therefore would avoid the need to cut down the backing before using it on figure bases. To make it more suitable for games I dry-brushed it with yellow. I cut for rectangle for use as fields and kept the rest for basing, etc.

There was also a "inside door mat" in a beige colour at only 88p and it seemed just the job for ploughed fields, this time I dry-brushed it brown. The results:
Fences are the old Airfix ones.

Wednesday, 19 June 2013

Part of the work on my medievals involves upsizing units so they can be used with Hail Caesar. For someone coming from WRG 6th/DBx the best frontage is a multiple of 60mm. This allows the use of all the different individual base sizes. I've gone for 120mm as a general rule, although I could upgrade to 180mm for some of my forces. However this leaves some units undersized, for example my HYW English bowmen were organised in units of 12.

So I picked up some cheap 99p Robin Hood figures in Modelzone and attempted to match the figures I painted back in 2008 (link). Here they are as a front rank with the originals behind
For those who like close ups, here's one. I normally don't bother as I can't see them that close anyway. It also demonstrate the tube I have added to these bases so I can add a suitable standard as necessary.

Monday, 17 June 2013

After Phalanx it was time on the Sunday for our tradional Gentlemen Pensioners get together and big game. This year it was First Naseby from the English Civil War. Against my personal preference for parliment I took Prince Rupert with his cavalry on the Royalist left flank.

An overview of the battle
The parlimentarians deploy
The Royalist deployment
The mass cavalry scrum commences
Gradually I force back Stapelton's cavalry as my cavalry have a better melee rating.
On the right the partlimentary cavalry are having fun in the hedgerows
In the centre to clash is limited to an artillery duel
Lunch stop, the ruler marks where we got up to before going to the pub for a Sunday roast
The King (Ian) wonders why I haven't finished off the Parlimentarians, while Essex (Chris) sees a rather nasty threat emerging
Crunch, the three remaing Parlimentary cavalry regiments break simultaneously
Ganging up on the infantry at the end of the Parlimentary line
The pressure tells and the regiment surrenders
By the end of play the battle in the hedgerows continues

A great day and great company.

Rules used 1644 and the 28mm figures used were from Steve's and David's collections amassed over the years, including some of my old minifigs!

Sunday, 16 June 2013

But not many photos as the hall still suffers from the dreadful yellow cast to the lighting.

First off the Lance & Longbow battle of Deepdale (Preston) 1315 the climax of the Banastre rebellion of 1315. A full write up of the details and a game report should appear in the Hobilar in due course

The "Loyal" cavalry find that there are rather more Rebels than they expected. But they succeeded in driving some of them off before being driven back themselves.
Before numbers began to tell
Nearing the high point of the Rebel advance.
Overall it was a close fought contest and it certainly could have been won my the rebels, but in the end with the destruction of their cavalry and most leaders they were doomed to failure. Rules used were Warhammer Ancient Battles More details of the game and the heraldry can be found on the Wargame Amateur blog.

A very nicely painted Roman/Celt DBA clash from the Liverpool Wargamers (the picture really doesn't show how good they are)
Wellington's first victory
I quite liked the village.

I managed to clear quite a bit of the heap on the B&B, but I'll be sorting out the remainder ready for Gauntlet (only 3 weeks to go)

Purchases were quite moderate
4 x Zvezda motorcycle combos to be converted for my DAK
2 x Brittania Sdkfz10/4's and some Grubby DAK AT rifles for the same.
A few 20mm Napoleonic bits from SHQ, some pontooners, settlers (female camp followers) and Camel riders for Egypt (all of these are from Fine Scale Factory)
"Race for the Reichtag" and "The Siege of Kustrin" both by Tony Le Tissier picked up on the B&B for £7 the pair
An Airfix Lee/Grant again from the B&B for a £1, I'll probably paint this as an American one for the Gauntlet game!

Tuesday, 11 June 2013

So the cavalry os now complete, six units corresponding to the 3rd, 4th, 11th,12th, 13th and 14th ordonnance companies. Each unit has the relevant standard for the company and an extra banner with the coat of arms of the conducteur of the company. I've given each company a theme in the coat and lance colours.
Rather than fix the flags permanently I've use the same techique as the Jacobites and glued a tube on the base, so I can swap them if needed for a different army. Although I'll be using the army with Hail Caesar I've based the figures so they can be used for WRG 6th and also have the option of deploying the units in wedge.
The figures are the Miniart French and German knight sets,reasonable figures, but a bit short on ornimentation such as plumes.

Unfortunately I miscalculated and forgot that I would need some mounted commanders, so I'll have to track down a set of the Miniart Burgundian knights to fill that gap.

Wednesday, 5 June 2013

Hmm, May didn't go well; going on a last minute holiday; crushing my thumb and failing to get back into the swing of painting because of the good weather all contributed. Add to that sorting out the pile of models and figures I bought and I'm not surprised I'm all behind. June is the big month because I have to sort everything out for the SOTCW game at Gauntlet, but already sitting on the workbench is all this lot -
and there's more nearby.

From back left working clockwise

A few Napoleonic generals and a Polsten gun

two trays with the nearly finished Burgundian cavalry 6 units of 6, just touching up and basing to do

A mass of halberdiers some will be Burgundian, and the rest for the War of the Roses, I hope to be able to interchange some units

A box of Burgundian handgunners, and archers to round out my WOTR units

Then my portion of the second hand models needing some repaint, stowage and then painting

Off to the side are the two boxes of Strelets Crusader Transport, that are now desprued and awaiting assembly.

About Me

Been wargaming for nearly 50 years. Virtually all my armies are made up of 20mm plastics so don't expect to find any 28mm metal here. I've painted over 25,000 and I've got about 6,000 unpainted and the manufacturers are producing more than ever. Periods, I play almost everything from Ancient Greece to Vietnam